Review: #Alhamdulillah for Series

A few years ago, the Little people and I embarked on a journey of thankfulness in Ramadaan. We called it the Shukr Journal, and it brought such awareness and a mindset of always being thankful, especially for the little things.

However as life happens, we often find ourself forgetting lessons and reverting to taking things for granted. Its partly for this reason, that I was so *grateful* and eagerly agreed to reviewing the following book: #Alhamdulillah For Series ( A Muslims mini Gratitude Journal) by Ayiena.

Ayiena is a collaboration between 2 hugely talented sisters, who wanted to make people consciously aware of the numerous blessings we have been bestowed with on a daily basis. The motto of the company is ‘A believer is the believer’s mirror’  Essentially to reflect on points of importance yourself, and in so doing to reflect it back to others. The idea behind the book, the #alhamdulillah for series,  is to acknowledge that these blessings are not merely a coincidence, but moreso to firmly know in your heart that it is indeed a blessing from Allah! The Arabic word Alhamdulillah means ‘Praise to be Allah’ and actively remembering this makes you realise how reliant we truly are on our Lord. It is clearly stated their intention is to spread gratitude towards Allah in places we sometimes forget to see.

The book initially started off as a series of drawings, but quickly the submissions of both captions and artwork, from countries as far afield as US, UK, Canada, Venezuela, India, Pakistan and UAE, amongst others, provided Ayeina with enough material to take this idea further and actually combine it into a book. So much so that the book will be  translated into German and Arabic. There are also tentative plans for translation into a number of other languages such as, Urdu, French and Swahili. Plans are also in place for a Hindi version as well as baˈhasa indoneˈsia InShaAllah!

The illustrations are delightful, and appealing to every age group, from the youngest member in the family through to the oldest. Even better, the book is divided into different categories, such as #Alhamdulillah for Basic Necessities, #Alhamdulillah for Islam, and #Alhamdulillah for everything, amongst others.

I personally like the pages that allows one to fill in your own details, things that you are grateful for! Each section has 7 pages, and at the end of it, there appears a page like this:

I also particularly love that the book opens and closes with Quraanic aayah that highlight an importance of shukr, of gratitude! When asked what was the inspiration behind the entire series, this was what the Ayeina had to say:

This verse of the Qur’an:
“…If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]…” (14:7)

The more the attitude of gratitude you develop, the more the blessings shower on you – or maybe it’s just that you start seeing the blessings in so many places you never saw before. So we wanted ourselves and others to see those opportunities around them. Where they could see the glass half full – thinking, it could have been empty!

Showing praise and gratitude towards Allah in tiny little things even. Things that we sometimes don’t even associate with Allah. 

It’s a fun series that could be used as great reminders on how important positivity is, in our lives. 

Also, we personally love the “Happiness is…” series and you can perhaps say #AlhamdulillahForSeries is the Muslim version of it 😀 

For myself and my Little People, this is going to serve as a wonderful build-up towards Ramadaan. I highly recommend the book as a gift, to your loved ones, and even to yourself. I promise you, this is one buy you will not regret.

For more info, regarding actual release dates, as well as info on how to purchase the book, and sneak peeks into some of the amazing artworks, please check out their website here: http://ayeina.com